Attorneys for 'Desperate Housewives' star have requested that she serve her time at Dublin federal prison

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Actress Felicity Huffman is escorted by Police into court where she is expected to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud before Judge Talwani at John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, May 13, 2019. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo credit should read JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP/Getty Images)

A federal court judge on Friday sentenced TV actress Felicity Huffman to 14 days in federal prison for her role in the nationwide college admissions scandal, which exposed how wealthy parents tried to game the system by paying a fixer to cheat their children’s way into elite universities.

The “Desperate Housewives” star was the first of 34 parents charged in “Operation Varsity Blues” to be sentenced.

For this reason, it was expected that fellow TV actress Lori Loughlin and other parents, including several from the Bay Area, would be closely watching the judge’s sentence for Huffman to gauge how their cases might proceed.

With the 14-day sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani appeared to split the difference between prosecutors’ request that Huffman be sentenced to at least one month in prison and her attorneys’ request for probation and community service. According to reports from inside the court, her attorneys also asked that Huffman serve her time at the federal prison in Dublin, a low-security facility.

Following the sentence, Huffman issued a statement: “I accept the court’s decision today without reservation. I broke the law, and I pleaded guilty. There is no excuse of justifications for my actions.”

The sentence came after Huffman offered a tearful apology, in which she reiterated statements she made in her pre-sentencing letter, according to CNN. In her letter, Huffman said it was “desperation to be a good mother” that led her to pay to rig her oldest daughter’s SAT score. Huffman also said she would feel “utter shame” for the rest of her life.

In her letter, Huffman also admitted to finding motherhood “bewildering,” saying she always was “afraid of doing it wrong.” Huffman described what happened when her daughter Sophia learned about the bribe and the falsified score. She said the teen came to her, “tears streaming down her face” and asked, “Why don’t you believe in me? Why didn’t you think I could do it on my own?”

By including the prison term, Talwani expressed the intent to let Huffman and other wealthy parents know that no one is above the law, according to CNN. Huffman was ordered to report to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons on Oct. 25. The bureau makes the final determination on whether Huffman will be housed at the Dublin facility or at another in the prison system.

Legal experts earlier doubted that Talwani would think it’s worth it to lock the actress up for 30 days.

“The vast majority of criminal defendants who are looking at sentences at the lowest end of the sentencing range don’t get a prison sentence,” said former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmini.

Regardless of whether Huffman received probation or a month or two in prison, Rahmini said Huffman helped win a more lenient sentence by pleading guilty within weeks of being charged in the scandal.

Loughlin, on the other hand, her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli decided to reject a plea deal and fight the charges. As a result, the Bel Air couple were indicted on more serious charges of fraud and money laundering, which carry maximum potential sentences of 20 years in prison.

Huffman also tried to help her case and rebuild her reputation by expressing remorse in a public statement and in an emotional letter to the judge, added Rahmini, who tried drug and fraud cases when he was in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego from 2010 to 2012.

Prosecutors had been adamant that Huffman and other parents should face some period of incarceration for a bribery scheme designed to effectively allow their children to take coveted college spots from “more deserving” students whose parents didn’t cheat on their behalf. Prosecutors said prison was necessary to show these parents and everyone else that the rich, powerful and, in some cases, famous, are not above the law.

“For wrongdoing that is predicated on wealth and rationalized by a sense of privilege, incarceration is the only leveler,” prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum. “In prison everyone is treated the same, dressed the same, and intermingled regardless of affluence, position or fame.”

The Bay Area parents who will be sentenced in the next two months are Peter Jan Sartorio, of Menlo Park; Majorie Klapper of Menlo Park; Augustin Huneeus Jr., of San Francisco, a Napa Valley vintner.

In addition to Huffman showing remorse, she and her lawyers also relied on a favorable legal argument from U.S. probation officials, who said there was “no victim” or no “actual or intended loss” in the scheme involving her and other parents.

The parents were charged with paying tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their children admitted to top colleges, either by having their children’s standardized test scores boosted or by having them falsely designated as crew athletes, according to documents filed in federal court in Boston.

Basically, the argument from probation officials is that no one was hurt in the scheme, according to TMZ. In line with this argument, probation officials also disputed the prosecution’s view that the severity of sentences should be based on how much each defendant paid in bribes to William “Rick Singer,” the scheme’s alleged mastermind.

Prosecutors asked for a less severe sentence for Huffman than for co-defendant Augustin Huneeus, for example. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 4.

While Huffman paid $15,000 to singer, Huneeus pleaded guilty to paying $300,000 to Singer to help his daughter cheat on the SAT. Prosecutors asked for Huneeus to be sentenced to 15 months in prison. They also asked for a one-month term for Sartorio and a four-month sentence for Klapper.

Prosecutors agreed it was difficult to calculate “the pecuniary harm” caused to universities and standardized testing companies. But they said “there is little dispute” that these entities “have suffered, and will continue to suffer” in terms of costs associated with reputation damage, internal investigations and related legal costs. Prosecutors said sentencing guidelines allow judges to look at sentences “paid, received, lost or gained the course of criminal conduct.”

For this reason, Loughlin and Giannulli also could face far longer sentences than Huffman’s. Loughlin and Giannulli are charged with paying $500,000 to Singer and his alleged accomplices at the University of Southern California to get their daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella, falsely designated as crew athletes.